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Kathleen Parker

Double standard: Why is Broadwell the villain in Petraeus’s affair?

More complicated is the relationship between Petraeus and Broadwell, if only because of an investigation into questionable e-mails she sent to Kelley, whom she apparently considered a rival. Broadwell is allegedly being investigated for “cyberstalking” and also in regard to classified documents found on her computer. …

Nevertheless, Broadwell’s reputation has been tarnished well beyond the sin for which she has expressed sincere remorse. The married mother of two has been characterized by an increasingly tabloid press as the scarlet woman, the “mistress,” an outdated word that indicts a woman but rarely the man, smirkingly suggestive of “kept-ness.” …

As much as we sympathize with the painful upheaval suffered by the families involved, let’s pause a moment for Broadwell and recall that she was an Army officer, a West Point graduate, an accomplished, yes, ambitious, elite member of the military who, as it turns out, happens to have had a relationship with a man for whom she apparently had strong feelings.

Did she cause others pain? Of course, and for this she is suffering by all accounts. Does she deserve to be pilloried in the public square? Or does she deserve the same second chance any similarly accomplished man would be accorded?

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Did she cause others pain? Of course, and for this she is suffering by all accounts.

By all accounts she is not suffering at all. Her husband is a cuckold. Her family supports her. I’m sure if Petraues left his wife for her, she would be thrilled. She doesn’t care about pain she might cause his family.

She was sending threats to a woman she perceived as interested in him. That indicates that she had not gotten over him and was going to continue to pursue him. So, no, she does not care if she causes his or her own family pain.

Simple. The pursuer usually get the blame, and Broadwell appears on the surface to have been the pursuer. If she really wasn’t, well cry me a river and take it up with your darling media – the one that loves to savage female conservatives for having the gall to exist, much less screw around.

They’re both villains. Happy? The most interesting part of this whole affair is whether it led to Petraeus trying to help cover up Benghazi, or whether the White House tried to use it to get Petraeus to cover it up.

The most pathetic part of the affair is the number of people who completely ignored what happened in Benghazi until there was a sex scandal attached to it.

Which reminds me: did Kathleen Parker write any columns about what happened in Benghazi? Or did she just get interested when Petraeus resigned because he was having an affair?